While Pope Francis addressed Congress Sept. 24, New York City waited for his arrival. It was the perfect time to prank the Big Apple.

So, Madame Tassaud's drove around a new wax statue of the Pontiff in a convertible, leading to many turned heads, many selfies, many confused looks, many traffic snarls and at least one investigation by authorities.

The wax figure of the pope was part of a publicity stunt for Madame Tassaud, which added it to its collection in advance of Pope Francis' visit to the United States. The company drove it around Midtown, hours before the pope's expected arrival.

Someone who saw the figure of the pope riding down Fifth Avenue was concerned, snapped a photo and sent it to the New York City Police Department.

Officers investigated and found that the pope wasn't really in the back of the white convertible, which hardly looked like the popemobile. The actual Pope Francis was addressing Congress at the time the replica was spotted in NYC.

No charges were filed in the incident, but Madame Tassaud personnel apologized to officers for not having a front license plate - a state motor vehicle violation.

"We want to do something special for the Pope, he's coming back to the city," said Tony Salihaj, the chef.

The highly anticipated arrival of Pope Francis in New York already has venues across the city cooking up a surprise or two.
"We decided to make an image of him the best we can," Salihaj said. "We're pizza men we're not artists."

Tony Salihaj says he came up with the papal pizza recipe along with a friend and then quickly put it into execution; with the help of mozzarella and ricotta cheese, tomatoes, anchovies, and peppers to round out the details and adornments.

"This took about five hours to make this one and lots of patience," Salihaj said.

Some poor, poor guy over at Gawker had his life's dreams put on hold when the Pope came to town. And he is surely not alone.

With the Pope's parade into America came enormous traffic blockages that put the kibosh on iPhone 6S deliveries. As the writer says:

The monstrous traffic congestion caused by the arrival of Pope Francis is expected to be so bad that UPS and Apple are already warning customers against the worst: missing the promised Friday arrival date of our new aluminum and glass idols. I received this email yesterday, and renounced my faith in the Catholic Church:

We know the Pope spreads an anti-capitalism message, but shouldn't it be one that doesn't involve the delay of new technology? Think of the children!

I ask you to join me in praying for my trip to Cuba and the United States. I need your prayers.

As Pope Francis (@Pontifex) makes his historic journey to the US, there will undoubtedly be excitement and celebration surrounding his arrival – both in the cities he visits, and on Twitter. Considering the warm Twitter welcome he received shortly after being named Pope, we anticipate many devotees will flock to Twitter to savor his visit.

No matter where you are, we want to make it easy for you to follow right along with his journey. We also wanted to offer a bit of fun to the proceedings, so today you'll start to see special Twitter Emojis that celebrate his historic visit to the US. To see the emojis appended to the end of the hashtag, simply Tweet your messages using these hashtags: